WHAT IS HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM?

WE HEAR A LOT ABOUT HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM AND EVERYONE THINKS THEY KNOW WHAT IT MEANS BUT WHEN ASKED,

NO-ONE SEEMS TO KNOW WHAT IT IS.

 BUT THEY’RE VERY INSISTENT THAT YOU SHOULD HAVE IT.

 They use phrases like “Get drunk in the spirit”, “Get slain in the spirit” and “Receive the Holy Ghost” to make you feel like you are missing out on something and even inferior if you haven’t “had this experience” yet. 

BY THE TIME YOU HAVE FINISHED READING THIS PAPER YOU WILL HAVE NO DOUBT AS TO WHAT ALL THIS CONFUSION IS ALL ABOUT.

 We will use the King James Bible only as our inerrant source of authority.

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           You will see:

1. That there is only one baptism with the Holy Spirit.

2. What the Holy Spirit baptism is not.

3. What the Holy Spirit baptism is.

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“One Lord, one faith, one baptism,” Ephesians 4:5

THERE IS ONLY ONE BAPTISM!

“There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of yourcalling; One Lord, one faith, ONE BAPTISM , One God and Father of you all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” 
(Ephesians 4:4-6)

Clearly the Bible here says that there is only one baptism 

WHO DOES THE BAPTIZING?

“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: HE SHALL BAPTIZE YOU WITH THE HOLY GHOST…” (Matthew 3: 11)

 This is John the Baptist speaking about himself and how he could only baptize the Jews unto repenting for their sins. But he says that Jesus Christ who was to follow him would baptize them with the Holy Ghost. John says that Jesus Christ does the baptizing. The Holy Spirit does not do the baptizing but is the work of Jesus Christ himself.

WHAT IS THE CORRECT TERMINOLOGY – “BAPTIZED WITH” OR “BAPTIZED IN”?

Matthew 3:11 says:  ... he shall baptize you with the holy ghost...”  If Jesus is the baptizer, He baptizes with and not in.

Jesus Christ baptizes with the Holy Spirit. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT? 

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body,  being many,  are one body: so also is Christ. FOR  BY  ONE  SPIRIT  ARE WE   ALL   BAPTIZED   INTO  ONE  BODY, whether   we   be   Jews   or   Gentiles, whether  we  be  bond or free;  and have been  all made  to  drink  into one Spirit.”

(1Corinthians 12:12-13).

Here  we  see  that  Holy  Spirit baptism is the one which puts us into Jesus Christ.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE BAPTIZED INTO JESUS CHRIST? 

“Know ye not, that so many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ were

baptized into his death?” (Romans 6:3) From 1 Corinthians 12:13 we see that we are baptized into Christ by Holy Spirit baptism and from
Romans 6:3
we see
that when this happens we are baptized into His death and we are identified with the same baptism as Jesus.

SUMMARY SO FAR: 

HOLY SPIRIT BAPTISM IS DONE BY JESUS CHRIST WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT AND OCCURS WHEN A PERSON IS SAVED AND TRUSTS JESUS CHRIST FOR SALVATION. WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT WE ARE BAPTIZED INTO THE BODY OF CHRIST BY CHRIST.

Nowhere in the Bible are Christians commanded to seek, or receive the Holy Spirit or to be baptized “by”, “with” or “of” the Holy Spirit. The Bible doesn’t tell us how to get the baptism of the Holy Spirit - IT TELLS US THAT WE HAVE ALREADY BEEN BAPTIZED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT WHEN WE BELIEVED. 

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?

“... but be filled with the spirit.”

(Ephesians 5:18)

Being filled is an entirely different matter altogether for the Christian.

The Bible clearly says to be filled with the Holy Spirit but this is not the same asbeing baptized with the Holy Spirit. Baptism with the Holy Spirit is a one-off event when we are saved but the filling of the Holy Spirit is continuous.

Never are we told to seek, tarry or pray for the baptism

 with the Holy Spirit.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT?

 We are told that the flesh wars against the Spirit. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other...” (Galatians 5:17)

`Being filled’ with the Holy Spirit means to be `controlled’ by the Holy Spirit. The degree that the Christian determines to obey the commandments of God is the degree that the Holy Spirit can have control. Many Christians are fleshy and lazy and see this un-Scriptural “being baptized in the Holy Spirit” as a way out of their dilemma of their body of flesh.

They want the Holy Spirit to come in and drown all their sin with no brokenness on their part. (Falling over backwards is a sign of judgment in the Bible and barking like a dog or getting drunk

in the `spirit’ is either flesh or demonic.) 

WHAT IS THE COMMUNION/

FELLOWSHIP OF THE HOLY GHOST SUPPOSED TO BE?

 In 2 Corinthians 13:14, Paul finishes his letter with the following: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen”

Many Christians falsely see that fellowship or communion with the Holy Spirit is something to be enjoyed in and of itself - enjoying each other’s company for it’s own sake. This is not the meaning at all. Communion with the Holy Spirit has both looking to Jesus, with the Holy Spirit conforming the believer into the image of Jesus. 

IS THERE A SECOND EXPERIENCE TO BE CALLED

BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT?

NO! When Charismatics insist that there is a second experience to be called “baptism of the Holy Spirit”, they are ACTUALLY REDEFINING THE DOCTRINE OF SALVATION.

They are saying that salvation doesn’t really give us everything that we think it gave us and that we are still lacking

and that we need something more.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE FULL and “COMPLETE IN HIM”? 

“For in him (Jesus Christ) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are COMPLETE in him...”

(Colossians 2:9-10)

The meaning of the word “complete” is “having all its parts;

entire; finished”.

 This verse means – “Our fullness comes from His fullness and His fullness is transfused into you by virtue of your incorporation into Him.”

“YOU AREN’T MADE FULL IN HIM, BUT IF YOU ARE IN HIM

YOU ARE MADE FULL.

 

GETTING “SLAIN”, “DRUNK” OR “BAPTIZED” WON’T MAKE YOU FULL OR COMPLETE IN A MILLION YEARS!

 

All this “carrying-on” detracts from Jesus - not what He is going to do for us, but what He has already done on the cross! What Paul says, is that in Christ the saints find the satisfaction of every spiritual want.

We possess the Holy Spirit baptism that has placed us into Christ when we received Christ as Saviour.

At salvation we are baptized with the Holy Spirit, sealed, indwelt, filled and regenerated. There is no “second blessing”. What is lacking is people’s full obedience, full trust and full submission.

Jesus has paid your way to heaven already. The church can’t save you & neither can good works, baptism, sacraments or doing your best! The only way to escape the eternal fires of hell is to forsake your own righteousness & receive Jesus as Saviour. “For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13). Receive Jesus as Saviour and have the ONE BAPTISM that places you into His body forever.

 

Harley Hitchcock 

www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com

                                                          

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Are Tongues for today?

"Wherefore tongues are for a sign

not to them that believe,

but to them that believe not:..."

( 1 Corinthians 14:22)


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Australian Bible Ministries, PO Box 5058, Mt. Gravatt East 4122 Qld, Australia
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com